Lunchtime news July 6

The latest hike in interest rates could cost homeowners in Scotland an extra £100 a month warns Shelter Scotland. Home owners in London could have to shell out an extra £130 on a typical £125,000 mortgage, warns thisislondon.

And things look set to get worse says the FT. Interest rates are all but certain to hit 6 per cent by the end of the year reports the paper.

The Conservative social justice policy group, chaired by former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith, will unveil a report on personal debt next Tuesday. The survey warns that personal debts have reached the equivalent of an average £54,452 per household. It also found that up to nine million Britons confessed to having a serious debt problem and calls for radical steps to curb high street lending.

Yvette Cooper has told ministerial colleagues that the new housing green paper will allow councils to build more homes suitable for families – not herald a return to the council estates of the 1950s.